In the 1969 comedy classic, “If This Is Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium,” the characters could not figure out where they were by just looking around. Reeling from a recent ban on shechita, (kosher animal slaughter), disrespected Belgian Jews are left to wonder if their country just invited them to leave.
Philippe Markiewicz, president of the Central Jewish Consistory of Belgium, addressed the parliament of Wallonia, the largest of Belgium’s three provinces, before it voted on whether to ban the slaughter of un-stunned animals, as required by traditional Jews and Muslims. He declared: “The last assault on ritual slaughter was in October 1940 under the Nazi occupation because they knew how important it was for Jews.” Markiewicz’s protest was condemned by the parliamentarians. Even the head of the umbrella group of Belgian Jewish organizations rejected the politically indelicate charge, insisting that "the prohibition of ritual slaughter was once justified by violent anti-Semitism. Today, it is justified by its promoters by the concern for animal welfare.”
But Markiewicz was correct.
The banning of shechita does not always begin as anti-Semitism, but it has a storied partnership with it. While Hitler banned it almost immediately after coming to power in the 1930s, anti-shechita laws go back to the 1880’s. Then too, concern for animal welfare initially drove the campaign. It would have failed were it not for openly anti-Semitic elements that carried the measures forward. The very first plebiscite ever held in Switzerland concerned Jewish slaughter. PETA did not exist at the time, but lots of anti-Jewish sentiment did. Against the advice of their government and political parties, the measure passed. In Norway, the original impetus for restricting Jewish slaughter came from animal protection quarters. But a 1929 Norwegian parliamentary debate degenerated into ugly Jew-hatred. Jens Hunseid, later to become prime minister, declared: “We have no obligation to deliver our domestic animals to the cruelties of the Jews, we have not invited the Jews to this country, and we have no obligation to provide the Jews animals to their religious orgies.”
While anti-Semitism is not the only reason that some have opposed shechita, neither it nor an anti-Muslim backlash can be ignored.
Kosher slaughter uses an extremely sharp, knick-free blade which leads to quick loss of consciousness – better than stunning and commercial slaughter, which leaves many animals (5% is considered acceptable) terrorized before they are finished off. Testimony to this was presented to the Walloons, including the findings of American Dr. Temple Grandin, arguably the world’s greatest animal welfare expert. So, there are good scientific arguments that kosher shechita may be what it has always claimed to be – the most humane approach to taking the life of an animal.
How, then, could the Belgians have voted against shechita without a single dissenter? It can’t be love of animals alone. Belgium has no problem with hunting for sport.
Angela Merkel declared in 2013, that Germany, the architect and implementer of the Holocaust, has an "everlasting responsibility for the crimes of National Socialism, for the victims of World War II and, above all, for the Holocaust. And this must be made clear from generation to generation and it must be said with bravery and moral courage.”
But just how much has been passed down to younger generations? In 2017, Jews in many parts of Europe are physically attacked. They cannot practice their religion openly. A wave of anti-Semitism has rolled over the Continent, fed by a resurgent far-right, and by some immigrants from Muslim countries who arrived with plenty of anti-Jewish animus.
Belgium itself has seen a huge uptick in anti-Semitic incidents. Belgians should listen to Merkel. Memory produces moral responsibility. Belgium was not the chief villain in the destruction of European Jewry. In fact, some 40% of Belgian Jews went into hiding, many helped by their Gentile neighbors. But Belgium also had fascist, openly anti-Semitic parties in the ‘30’s whose venomous hate helped set the stage for the deportation of Jews to death camps abetted by willing Belgian collaborators.
With its unanimous vote disrespecting the rights of religious minorities, Belgium shirked its moral and historic obligations and delivered an unmistakable message: “Jews are no longer not wanted here!”
The situation continues to worsen. Another province in Belgium is considering a shechita ban. Norway is again attempting to ban circumcision of baby boys. Many Jews are double checking the expiration date of their EU passports and flight schedules to Israel.
That comedic classic from the 60s has returned with a vengeance. If this is stick-it-to-the-Jews day, it must be Belgium… Unless it is Norway.
* Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is Director of Interfaith Affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center co-authored this essay